After Boris, who?

Even Boris Johnson’s longest-standing supporters now think he might be on the way out. His admission that he attended a Downing Street garden party when the rest of the country was living under strict Covid rules has proved the final straw for politicians ground down by months of negative headlines. MPs complain they’ve had enough, and don’t think he can recover. But there are two outstanding questions that are much harder to answer: when does he go? And who exactly should replace him?

Until now, ministers had been talking up the May local elections as the crunch point. If it was a disaster for the Conservatives then a confidence vote could be brought against Johnson, with a leadership contest to follow in the summer and the winner in place by the time of the party conference in Birmingham. But after Johnson’s admission, several MPs think they cannot wait so long for a new leader.